Andrew Yang says the two-party system fuels extremism: "The people are losing"

Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is harshly criticizing America's two-party political system and closed-party primaries, arguing that they help fuel extremist views on both sides. Yang, who announced in October he was leaving the Democratic Party after 20 years to become an independent, said the process has created incentives for catering to the most partisan constituents. 

"We can all just look around and see the duopoly is not working," Yang told CBSN "Red & Blue" anchor Elaine Quijano in an interview that aired Monday. "The political incentives are not around getting anything done, it's around blaming the other side, and just playing 'you lose, I lose' back and forth — while the people are losing." 

Yang said many other Western nations — including the United Kingdom, Germany and Sweden — all have successful political systems with more than two parties, arguing that those systems are "more responsive to the will of the people" and "more resistant to authoritarianism."